What Does Metroidvania Mean?
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Creatures Of War is a violent, action-packed, Metroidvania-inspired, adventure RPG. You’ll explore a massive island, savagely combatting unfathomable monstrosities in 2D souls/doom combat. No Mercy. Kill, Upgrade, or Perish.
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What does Metroidvania even mean? A Metroidvania is a subgenre of action-adventure video games. The word Metroidvania is a combination of two extremely popular video game franchises. Metroid and Castlevania thus producing, Metroidvania. A few key gameplay features must be met in order to determine if a game is a Metroidvania or not.
These are my Seven Key Features All Metroidvanias must include
#1 Side Scrolling
A pure Metroidvania must be a 2D side scrolling video game. While your character moves to the left or the right, the screen will follow our hero in whatever direction they choose. This includes environments above you or below. The screen can move in any direction that the character is moving towards.
#2 Action Platforming
A Metroidvania must contain Action-Platforming. Now let's take these two words and break them down.
Action is exactly as it sounds. You will be confronted with all kinds of enemies, big, small, exotic, and some that even feel alive.The combat will vary wildly per game but at the very core of each game, Action must reside somewhere to be considered a Metroidvania.
Platforming refers to the characters ability to jump onto various platforms placed throughout the environment. The platforming capabilities of the player will depend heavily on the primary focus of the game. Certain Metroidvanias focus on platforming. Many others put their attention towards a well polished combat system.
#3 Non-Linear Progression
Non-Linear Progression refers to the sequence of events or lack there of that must be completed in order for the game to reach its apex and final conclusion. Well what does that mean? That sounded awfully confusing.
In order to complete the game you do not have to go from one level to the next in a specific order that was predetermined from the developers. What games utilized this well? Where can we see this?
I would look no further than Timespinner. When you acquire the ability to transport yourself between both the past and future, you are able to tackle two timelines simultaneously. The specific path that you embark on to beat the game can be completely different depending on whether you want to fight in the past or the present. That’s key to the purest Metroidvania definition, progression has to be Non Linear.
#4 Gameplay Changing Abilities
In all Metroidvanias the player needs to acquire gameplay changing abilities and upgrades. In Castlevania Symphony Of The Night you can see Alucard turn into a bat to grant passage to undiscovered areas. In Super Metroid you will notice Samus turning into a ball and allowing her to traverse into areas that were once too small to enter.
But let's take a look at a modern example.
One of my favorite Metroidvanias is Ori and The Blind Forest. This game adds additional abilities to your players arsenal allowing the environments to be traversed in an entirely different manner from when you first started playing.
Take a look at this level in the beginning of the playthrough. Notice how Ori is moving through the level. Now towards the end of the game, Ori is zipping through the air and stomping out anything that gets in his way. The game quite literally changes the way it is played based upon abilities and upgrades the player can acquire. This will dictate the design of the future levels and require the developers to get more creative with their environmental designs.
#5 Backtracking:
In both Super Metroid and Castlevania Symphony Of The Night the player was forced to backtrack through the environment with new skills and abilities acquired throughout the playthrough in order to progress further.
For those of you who have played this marvelous game you will remember these pesky iron bars blocking your passage. The player is unable to progress past these bars until they get the mist ability. They can see a new talent floating in the air just waiting to get picked up, but those bars, they are quite formidable.
Later on in the playthrough, the player will come across the Mist ability. After they return back to the bars, Alucard is able to turn into mist and slip past the bars. You first have to acquire a new skill, only then can you backtrack, in order to progress the file.